Gallifrey
by SkyHolt
Summary: The Doctor's let (well, had to let) Clara pilot the TARDIS, and she's using some co-ordinates written on her bedroom wall. The co-ordinates in question? 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from Galactic Centre. In other words, for a planet called Gallifrey. But that's impossible, right? (Probably AU)
1. Stepladders

** Author's Note: This is my second fanfic, and my first DW one, so R&Rs would be wonderful. Thank you! Also, if anyone could inform me whether the Doctor has ever been in trouble with the Gallifreyan authorities, I'd be really happy (I've only watched half of Eleven so far...)**

**EDIT:/ Okay, fixed the TARIDS thing (I hope?) I broke the Sonic instead :)  
**

"Clara?"

Clara rolled her eyes. The Doctor was (he said) over 1000 years old, and he still hadn't learnt that it was impolite to yell at people from a distance.

"Clara!"

She put her book (a first edition of 'Oliver Twist', picked up from a shop in 1838) on a clear-ish patch of the TARDIS console, and stepped back nervously. "Stay." She didn't know where she'd picked up the habit of talking to inanimate objects, but she thought she really should stop sometime. She walked over to the TARDIS door, then turned around and talked to the machine itself. "And don't steal my book again!" The TARDIS vworped.

The Doctor was outside, with a carpentry set, some wood, and some TARDIS-coloured paint. A particularly rough patch in the Vortex had ripped out a large patch off the TARDIS door, and it turned out that the Sonic was broken (neither of them knew how, but the point was it was broken and it wasn't yet fixed) so the Doctor had pulled out a carpentry set from somewhere. It looked like it had never been used before. Clara had opted out of helping him, she wasn't exactly amazing at woodwork and if she made a mistake, the TARDIS would never forgive her.

"CLARA!"

"Coming!"

She finally stepped outside. The Doctor seemed to be hanging upside down from the roof. "Doctor. What are you doing?"

" think I'm stuck."

"You're a thousand-year-old time-travelling alien and you're stuck?"

"Yup!"

"Oh God. So what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know! I thought I'd tell you, and you could come up with something for me!"

"Doctor, sometimes you are the most useless person I know," sighed Clara, stepping inside to see if she could find a stepladder. Given that it was for the Doctor, the TARDIS might let her find it in less than an hour. But then again, probably not.

One hour, thirty-seven minutes, and forty-two seconds later, the machine at last let Clara find the ladder room. It appeared that the Doctor had a whole roomful of ladders for no particular reason in a variety of designs and colours. Avoiding the most outlandish ones, she went for one that looked most like an Earth ladder. It had that circle-y writing on the side too, like the stuff the Doctor had in his control room. They appeared to be similar patterns, so Clara guessed they meant something – probably the Doctor's native language, if he wasn't from Earth. She wondered, not for the first time, where exactly he _did_ come from…

Taking the ladder, she walked through the corridors. The TARDIS must have been bored, or perhaps tired, because it didn't try to stop her.

"You took a long time."

"Yeah, well, blame the TARDIS. It's being a cow again!"

"Don't insult my baby!" the Doctor glared at her. He seemed to be trying to hug the blue box. Whilst upside down. And given his clumsiness, that was not going to end well.

It didn't.

The Doctor lost his precarious foothold on the TARDIS roof, and tumbled down, somersaulting on the way. Luckily, he landed the right way up. Unluckily, he'd managed to break his ankle.


	2. Arrival

**A/N: Yay! Update! Forgot to say, I don't own the characters. And my description's probably wrong (I did my research, though...) so corrections are welcome! Thanks to everyone who's told me about the general Gallifreyan feeling towards the Doctor! And I've changed the story slightly, the quantum force field now needs to be broken :) Thanks to everyone who pointed that out! Explainations in a few chapters!**

**If anyone could point me to some links on the Doctor's past (especially as a young child and student) I'd be very grateful. I haven't been able to watch the relevant episodes and may not be able to for a while, so I'm relying on research :(**

**Anyway... On with the story! Please point out if the characters are OOC!**

The Doctor was sulking. He'd decided not to mend the ankle (he couldn't afford to use up any more regenerational energy), but it meant he couldn't steer the TARDIS.

"Clara, it's up to you to steer. You know how to use the controls, and you can switch to Basic mode if you prefer. You can choose where to go. And you," he said, looking at the console, "BEHAVE."

It bleeped.

Clara stepped up to the console and looked at the array of levers spread before her. She wondered how the Doctor managed to pilot it – it was a miracle that id didn't crash more often. And that was saying something.

She decided it would probably be easiest to use the Teleport function – not only was it easier to manage, but it would give a much less bumpy ride (the Vortex had been very rough lately) and there were some co-ordinates she'd been meaning to test. At least, she assumed they were co-ordinates. They looked like co-ordinates. Oh, overthinking again… She must have picked that up from the Doctor. She was sure she hadn't done that before…

Anyway. TARDISes to pilot.

Walking round to the console, she tapped at the screen. 'Please type in your co-ordinates for the distance from Galatic Centre.'

_10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2_.

Ok.

'Computing distance…

'…

'…

'…'

Clara raised an eyebrow. "Does it normally take this long to load?"

"No… Have you done something to my baby?"

"Nothing… I just typed in some co-ordinates I found."

"And where exactly did you find them?"

"When I was looking for the stepladder."

"Right. Cool."

The TARDIS interrupted them by vworping and rocking slightly, and the screen changed from 'loading' to 'Destination reached – ERROR: Space-time not detected. Anomaly circuits initialising.' Clara backed away slightly and wondered what it all meant. It couldn't be too dangerous, or the TARDIS would just fly them away. The windows in the door were letting through a burnt copper colour, so Clara decided to check out the scenery. The Doctor was still sitting by the wall, facing away from the doors. The TARDIS had grown a chair for him, probably trying to make up for the stepladder thing. Point was, he couldn't see the view. It was spectacular. The sky was a pale gold, not like a sunset but literally golden, all over the sky like a giant gold foil wrapper. There were two suns (one a lot smaller than the second), and the crass that seemed to stretch across the horizon and over to the shining mountains (or at least from this side of the view) was the glowing brown of polished oak. Poetic wording aside, it was shiny.

"Doctor. You have got to see this. It's a shiny planet!"

"I can't! Foot, remember?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Is there anywhere in this machine you have crutches?"

"I don't think so… Never needed them before. I just don't want to use up too much energy, it could be dangerous next time I regenerate. But back to the point, there's a room full of living metal just down that staircase. The TARDIS'll grow some – tell her they're for me, otherwise they'll be far too small."

Two minutes later, Clara handed the Doctor a pair of crutches. "How does it do that?"

"She's got a roomful of living metal. It can grow into anything you want! That's where I got that motorbike."

"Wait, motorbike?"

"The antigrav one? From London, remember? Wait, were you alive then? Yes."

"Okay… Now let's go! It's so pretty out there!"

She skipped out and held the doors open for the Doctor, proudly waiting for his reaction. When she didn't hear him babbling, she closed the door, and turned to face him. His face showed abject dismay. Worse than she'd ever seen him, and he'd been pretty sad. He was even paler than normal, and it appeared that his eyes were filling up. He would probably have overbalanced if it wasn't for the TARDIS doors and the crutches.

The Doctor felt sick. Not ill sick, but sick in that way that meant something really bad was going to happen. Except in this case it already had. Someone was playing a very nasty trick on him. He knew this planet.

It was his home planet, Gallifrey. Except that was impossible, quite aside from the protective fields preventing unannounced spacecraft landing. Because this planet was gone. Destroyed, and it was his fault. And someone knew, and was trying to shock him. But who? Who knew about this? And how exactly did they create a whole planet?

They were gone, surely? All gone?

How?

Clara opened the other door and pulled him into the TARDIS. "Doctor?"

He seemed to snap out of his trance, turning on Clara in anger.

"Where did you get those co-ordinates?"

Mentally, Clara sighed. _He's gone into a strop again. Pity, too. It seemed like a lovely planet._ Physically, she stepped back a pace, putting a hand on the TARDIS wall. "They were written on the wall… In my room… There was writing under them. Galli-something, I think, whoever wrote it has terrible writing. What's wrong? It looks nice…"

The Doctor muttered something.

"What?"

"Gallifrey."

"What?"

"This planet. If it actually is this planet. I… I know it. And we're going right now."

"But Doctor…"

"Now!"


	3. Time Guards

**A/N: Thanks to all the lovely reviewers and followers, and to everyone who read it! Long chapter alert, Word says it's over a thousand words! Okay, I'm making a ****_lot_**** up now, I did do research on Gallifrey though... I made up the tech and the Time People ranking though. Information on Gallifreyan life in general would be greatly appreciated! Please report any mistakes, thank you! Not the sentences in the fourth-to-last paragraph, they're meant to be that long...**

**Enjoy!**

Unfortunately for the duo, they were so busy with their heated discussion that they failed to notice the footsteps outside. The TARDIS lights went out, the monitor died, and it appeared that everything was turned off. Except the speakers.

"You in there. I know you can hear me, these spaceships always have sound. You're here illegally – I don't know how you managed to get through our barriers, but I'm sure you'll have a good explanation. Come out with your hands up, we have you surrounded. And don't think you can fly away, because we've just shorted all your systems."

The Doctor began to move resignedly towards the exit, but stopped when Clara looked confused. "What's the matter?"

"Did that sound mean something?"

"Yeah, it was an announcement. Wait, didn't you understand?"

"No… But doesn't the TARDIS translate?"

"It should. And the systems can't be malfunctioning, the language thing stays for a long time. I should know, the Ponds understood when I spoke to them in Silurian and that was nearly five months after they'd last come…"

"The Ponds?"

"My last companions. They… left."

"Right…" Clara set that aside mentally. She would find out more later. "So how come I couldn't understand?"

"There's one possibility. Actually, it doesn't deserve to be called that, it's not possible at all. One language that she's not programmed to translate."

"Which is?"

"This planet's called Gallifrey. Main language spoken, Gallifreyan. Dominant species, no name in any other languages, but generally known as Gallifreyans. You know how I said I'm a Time Lord?"

"Yes?"

"That's a rank. There are others too, Time… Guard, I think? And maybe more. It's been so long, and I didn't want to remember… But because I'm from here, and so is my TARDIS, she's programmed not to translate Gallifreyan."

"How come I can understand you, then?"

"Oh, I learnt a few common languages… Part of the Academy's curriculum. Then I learnt a few more. I have a lot of spare time, you see…"

"I'd love to hear about your hobbies, Doctor, but now is really not the time. Also, what did the person, er, Gallifreyan, say?"

"He basically said we're not meant to be here, they're surrounding us, they've disabled our systems, and we need to come out with our hands out. Nothing too worrying, really."

Clara frowned.

"Sarcasm! I'm trying to make light of the situation, here…"

Another announcement crackled over.

"And what about that one?"

"They're getting impatient."

They walked to the door, and Clara held it open as the Doctor hopped out. He said something in Gallifreyan, probably along the lines of "Don't shoot" because the people put their guns down. Well, lowered them a bit. The Doctor went over to them, and beckoned Clara. She walked over. One of the Gallifreyans said something. It sounded like gibberish.

"I'm sorry, what?"

The Doctor spoke in English this time (or whatever language they were speaking these days, the translators turned it to English for her automatically.

"My companion's from a different planet, I'm afraid she doesn't speak G-" he turned to Clara. "Clara! Are you sure you couldn't understand us just then?"

"Yes." Where was he going this time?

He passed a hand through his hair, tapped one of the crutches, and did a sort of distressed gaping thing with his mouth. "But that means- No, impossible- Maybe the translation stopped with the TARDIS? No, it stays with you for life-" to check, he spoke to Clara in a Sontaran dialect of the now extinct language of Betelgeuse 5. "Can you understand me now?"

She nodded. Translation still working, then. But- He absently fiddled with his bow tie, his brain both trying to freeze in shock and trying to find an alternative solution to how this was happening.

Nothing came up.

They started moving with the Guards, presumably to somewhere around the Citadel. If it was still there. He couldn't see it in the distance, but then they were probably in an entirely different area, possibly an entirely different continent. There would be transportation somewhere, hyperspeed probably if they were picked up that fast.

Presuming now that this was Gallifrey, and not just some cruel trap in an elaborate scheme to capture the last Time Lord, how had the TARDIS managed to reach its surface? The quantum force field, meant to stop intruders, was impenetrable without a pre-booked schedule. And judging by the Guards, this visit was anything but scheduled. And that was back _before_ the Time War, before the whole planet had been destroyed and Time-Locked. If they had accidentally Universe-hopped – a distinct possibility – they would have at least been subject to a warning message that they were entering Gallifrey space-time, watch out for other ships, please set your watches to local time, don't kill all the local wildlife, that sort of thing…

Most perplexing of all was the language. The translator kept working even if it was turned off or you were away from the TARDIS for a while. And, as he'd told Clara, there was only one language it didn't change. An almost-extinct language, almost impossible to replicate. And he was meant to be its last speaker. But here were more Time Guards (not Time Lords, surely – no-one who passed their Gallifreyan exams would become a guard) speaking his language and just… Being there.

The Doctor didn't understand what was going on.

They reached the vehicle. It was sleek and designed mainly for high-speed atmosphere travel, as he'd expected. They got in, and Clara was asking something. The Doctor was exhausted for some reason, but he hadn't been really badly tired for centuries so that couldn't be right. They were in the back seat, and Clara was cuffed but the Doctor wasn't, because he wouldn't be able to walk and no-one wanted to heal a criminal. And suddenly there was no time for even first aid because someone had made a call and now some government member whose name he vaguely remembered from history lessons over a millennium ago wanted to see them and no but this was impossible and the time lock should have stopped this and where was everyone and…

The Doctor fell asleep.

Which wasn't great for Clara, because she really needed someone to explain what was going on. And she'd quite like it if he'd undo the handcuffs too. They were probably sonic-screwdriver-proof, though; presumably most Time Lords had sonic somethings. She leaned back on the seat (made of some high-tech fabric, nothing like Earth chairs), but was soon disturbed when the vehicle slowed down. It was high-speed, after all.

They had reached a city.


	4. Spaceships and Carparks

**A/N: Sorry, short chapter. I know it's been a long wait - my excuse was that I found it surprisingly hard to write Clara. I still have no idea if she's in character, please let me know how badly OOC she is!**

**Also, it'll probably be a while before the next update. I'm on Season 3 at the moment, so I'm gonna try and watch that to get more of the info I need :) Okay, and also so I don't spoiler too much...**

**Enjoy!**

The Doctor was still asleep when they parked (or whatever the term was for airships). The city in question was covered by a huge glass dome, with heavily-guarded gates. Apparently high-speed things weren't allowed in the city, because they pulled over into what looked surprisingly like a parking lot and the Time Guard people started getting out of the car.

"Wait, what's going on?" Clara said. She'd been confused for the whole journey, and now these random… aliens? were just going to leave her handcuffed in the back of some random car on a planet that apparently shouldn't even exist! And this morning's soufflé hadn't even had the decency to not collapse! And the Doctor was still asleep.

Today was not exactly going great.

Oh, and one of the Gallifreyans seemed to have come back now, holding something that looked like a mic-and-earpiece combo. He yanked the door open and grabbed Clara's head, holding her in place while he clipped it on. It hurt. A lot. She yelped.

"What the Hell was that for?" she moaned.

The man grunted and moved away. "Take him out."

"What, Oh, translation. But what?"

"Him," the guy said, pointing at the Doctor. "Out of the hivee. We got a call, some government-y type person wants to see you."

"Us?"

"No, you. Just you."

"But what about him?"

"We'll find somewhere to put him. We need to heal his leg anyway, and that'll take time unless we can actually find someone prepared to heal him quickly. Which is pretty unlikely, so it'll take a few hours."

"You can't do that, he's the Doctor!"

"Doctor who?"

"Just the Doctor… Why d'you ask?"

"Curiosity. I may just be a Time Guard, but I can ask, can't I? Also, I think I've heard that name before. I'd better check it out."

He left. Clara looked back at him and figured she should probably get on with moving the Doctor before anyone else appeared and did… Well, whatever Gallifreyan police did. Hopefully they were nicer than the Judoon (she had met one, once, on a disastrous space cruise. The cruise-ship had been left stuck in space with a hole in its side, and a week later the Doctor had disappeared one night and the next day there had been headlines about how someone had broken into the Judoon headquarters, stolen all their guns, and left a bunch of bananas in their place), but you never knew…

The Doctor turned out to be quite heavy. That, combined with the crutches and his being completely limp, meant that after ten minutes and one arm later, she gave up and just waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was a pretty large carpark. Layer upon layer of rows, filled with all kinds of spaceship imaginable. From where she was, they appeared to be mainly silver cylinders, but there were spherical orbs and something that looked like the Great Pyramid of Giza, and boxes, and disks like the Enterprise, and several more of the car-shaped things that seemed to be called hivees, and there was actually a honest-to-goodness human rocket like out of comics that had a letter 'T' made out of hexagons on the side. She was pretty certain that one in the fifth row up was made of bubbles.

The floors were made of some glass-like material, so you could see through the floors below and above. It was a disconcerting experience, but at least it gave her something to look at. And it just went up and up and up, all these tiers of spaceships from unimaginable worlds so far away. Traveling with the Doctor made it hard to forget a sense of perspective, but God this place was huge and there were just so many things, all made by different species…

But something was odd. Clara couldn't see anyone. Of any species, which was strange when you considered that in most areas, on most planets, a city meant an established population of at least several thousand. A city this size, with defences like that glass bubbly thing, meant an extremely advanced civilisation, of at least a million (surely?). And she had seen sixteen different people, sum total, since they'd arrived. Not including herself or the Doctor. And three quarters of those had been guards at the edge of the bubbly thing… Bubbly thing. Not a great name. It probably had an official name or something. She'd ask later.

Normally she would have looked around a bit by now (more like completely wandered off), to see where she was, okay, and partly to check out these spaceship things too. But now she didn't have the Doctor to go back to or save her if she got in trouble, she wasn't so keen on the whole exploring-a-planet thing.

Plus, she reasoned to herself, someone had to make sure the Doctor was alright. He obviously wasn't used to prolonged physical injury and he seemed to be in shock at finding this planet of his. She'd heard his muttering about how this planet was supposed to be impossible… But impossible things didn't exist, right?

She jerked out of her thoughts as footsteps approached from behind.


End file.
